Feature GB036: Do demonstratives show an elevation distinction?

Patrons: Jeremy Collins and Jay Latarche

Description ⇫

Summary

Elevation is concerned with how high or how low an object is (in altitude).

Procedure

  1. Find adnominal demonstratives, which are modifiers that can modify nouns (of any type and not just a restricted set such as location nouns) to mark position.
  2. Code 1 if there are adnominal demonstratives that specifically communicate an elevation distinction to the speaker or interlocutor, rather than just near or far distance such as in GB035.

Examples

Godoberi (ISO 639-3: gdo, Glottolog: ghod1238)

Coded 1. Godoberi has six demonstratives, which can function both adnominally and, when carrying a case marker, as demonstrative pronouns. There is one demonstrative, he-, with the meaning 'down there', as opposed to the demonstratives with differences in horizontal distance. Kibrik calls he- the "inferior demonstrative" (Kibrik 1996: 42):

ha-     proximate demonstrative (this, close to the speaker),
hu-     proximate demonstrative (this, close to the listener),
hada-   remote demonstrative (at some distance from the speaker),
hudo-   remote demonstrative (at some distance from the listener),
he-     inferior demonstrative (that down there, that aside),
ho-     anaphoric demonstrative (aforementioned)
(Kibrik 1996: 42)

Hatam (ISO 639-3: had, Glottolog: hata1243)

Reesink (1999:60). Coded 1.

Hatam has a complex demonstrative system, including elevation distinctions. The demonstratives can be used as demonstrative pronouns when prefixes with gi- and as adnominal modifiers when prefixed with di-.

ni      near speaker
ma      near addressee
mo      away from speaker and addressee
nu      far away
nyo     sloping up
hu      vertically up
mu      down

Further reading

Diessel, Holger. 2013. Distance contrasts in demonstratives. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

References

Kibrik, Aleksandr E. 1996. Godoberi. (LINCOM Studies in Caucasian Linguistics, 02.) Munich: Lincom Europa.

Reesink, Ger P. 1999. A grammar of Hatam: Bird's Head Peninsula, Irian Jaya. (Pacific Linguistics: Series C-146.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.


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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment